My elderly father bought an extra garage many years ago, which is not near to his house.

The side wall seems to be moving, which I assume is due to subsidence, possibly caused by roots. This would of course eventually lead to the roof joists pulling out and the roof collapsing.

Obviously this needs to be sorted sooner rather than later. I contacted a builder, who called today to have a look. As the garage is not next to the house, I don’t think there is any insurance.

He said the cause of the movement is dues to a drainage ditch nearby. See attached rough sketch, as well as a couple of photographs, on next message

Right next to the garage wall, is private open land with no houses. The owner of this land has, probably many years ago had a drainage channel formed, approximately 1m away from the wall (to the centre of ditch from external face of wall) with a level of about 1m below the bottom of the wall.

It is hard to see, due to vegetation how far the foundation top is, below the bottom of the wall, but my guess is 200-300mm at the most. There is grass and general vegetation on both sides of the ditch, including the slope next to it, as well as at least one large tree, with branches above the garage roof.

My questions are :

Is this drainage ditch the likely cause of the movement ?

Are the roots causing damage ?

Is it worth trying to contact the owner, taking into effect a lack of insurance and therefore any costs would have to be met by my father directly ?

Thank you for any advice provided.

Last edited by wbmkk on Mon May 30, 2011 10:27 am, edited 1 time in total.